LINGUIST List 7.849

Sat Jun 8 1996

Books: Arabic

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Additional information on the following books, as well as a short backlist
of the publisher's titles, may be available from the Listserv. Instructions
for retrieving publishers' backlists appear at the end of this issue.

Directory

New Books from John Benjamins Publishing
Arabic
The Explanation of Linguistic Causes
Az-Zaggagi's Theory of Grammar
Introduction, translation, commentary
KEES VERSTEEGH (University of Nijmegen)
The ultimate aim of every linguistic tradition is to go beyond the
purely descriptive level and seek an explanation for linguistic
phenomena. Traditions differ, however, with regard to the class of
linguistic phenomena they wish to explain and the framework in which
they define their explanation. In this volume the English translation
is presented of the treatise on linguistic explanation by the
10th-century Arab grammarian az-Zaggagi, one of the most original
thinkers of the Arabic tradition. He worked in a period in which the
influence of Greek logic and philosophy made itself felt in almost all
Arabo-Islamic disciplines. Some of the problems he deals with are
familiar to modern linguists (e.g., morphological segmentation,
categorization of parts of speech), others are comprehensible only
within the frame of reference of Arabic linguistics (e.g., the
declension of the verb). An extensive commentary on the text analyzes
the problems discussed, both within the Arabic tradition and from the
point of view of modern linguistics. Apart from the index of names and
terms, there is an index of subjects, enabling the reader to consult
the book on specific key notions.
Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 75 xvi, 310 pp.
US & Canada:Hb 1 55619 611 3 US$79.00
Rest of World: 90 272 4562 2 Hfl.130,00
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics VII.
Papers from the Seventh Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics.
Mushira EID (ed.)
This volume includes ten papers selected from the Seventh Annual
Symposium on Arabic Linguistics. For the first time in this series,
three of the papers represent experimental studies dealing with Arabic
syllable and morphological structure. Four are focused on aspects of
agreement in Arabic. The remaining three deal with certain problems in
Arabic phonology and discourse. The volume includes contributions by
the following:Naomi Bolotin; Ellen Broselow; Marie Huffman, Su-I Chen
and Ruohmei Hsieh; Bruce L. Derwing; Dilworth B. Parkinson and Richard
A. Beinert; Ahmed Fakhri; Mark S. LeTourneau; Michael L. McOmber;
Ibrahim Mohamed and Jamal Ouhalla; Sabah Safi-Stagni; Munther Younes;
Wafa Batran Wahba.
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, No. 130 vii, 192 pp.
US &Canada:Hb 1 55619 584 2 US$57.00
Rest of World: 90 272 3633 X Hfl.95,00
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics VIII
Papers from the Eighth Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics.
Mushira Eid (ed.)
This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the Eighth
Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (March 4-5, 1994, Amherst,
Massachusetts). The majority of papers deal with a syntactic topic:
pronoun doubling, aspects of negation, and parameter-resetting in
second language acquisition. This last article is placed in the
section on language variation, together with a contribution on
diglossia and linguistic variation. Phonology is the last section of
this volume, including two articles: one on voice assimilation and one
on the distribution of homorganic consonants in triconsonantal roots.
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 134 vii, 261 pp.
US & Canada:Hb: 1 55619 589 3 US$69.00
Rest of World: 90 272 3633 X Hfl.125,00
Paul Peranteau (paulbenjamins.com)
John Benjamins searchable ONLINE catalogue:
*via WWW -- gopher://Benjamins.titlenet.com:6400
*via gopher -- gopher Benjamins.titlenet.com 6400